Tracking usage and operation of physical assets (e.g., machines, appliances, furniture), and having the capability to automatically adjust operational settings of such assets, has become an increasing concern for the reliable and continued operation of such assets—as well as optimizing the availability of assets that are frequently used versus minimizing, disabling, or removing assets that do not have much use. In the last several years, some physical assets have become equipped with smart technology—such as processors, memory, networking components and the like—that enable the functionality and operation of the assets to be controlled. However, such technology is not yet capable of capturing actual manipulation and usage of the corresponding physical asset by users (e.g., determining whether is a person touching or moving the asset during operation). In addition, there is no way to capture such usage of physical assets that do not have such smart technology embedded within.